Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-01-09

see the line complete with a total length,
from this city Of 213 miles. b extern
sion involves the expense OF q bridge ovei
the Great Kanawha, at PIT. Pleasant, with
a channel span of 500 feet. This bridge
will cost a good round sum, but it will 60
mn. and like all the Company sproperty, will
he of the very best design, material
and workmanship. About the middle Of
February q corps of engineers will also be
nut upon the line of a projected and i'm
%portant feeder, running from Ravenswood,
Jackson county, to Spencer, Roane county,
a distance of thirty-six miles. Some $685.
600 has already been appropriated for
this work. The extension to TT. Pleasant
was built with wonderful rapidity, con-
sidering the difficulties encountered.
Everything in the way of metal had to be
shipped from Pittsburg around by way OF
Columbus and down the Kanawha and
Ohio road, exposing the contractors to in
Vulnerable delays and the Company to
heavy expense; gravel could only be OBJ
tanned at two places IN the line, while the
difficulties of making a road bed at some
noints were very great. For instance, at
fetart Narrows, about 81 miles above
PIT. Pleasant, eighty men were
engaged for three months in
irving to make O road-bed on the face of a
slippy hill, and $1,000 cubic yards of
earth had to be moved and retaining walls
built before the job wa completed. Just
below New Haven the road-bed is carved
out of the face ola solid rock, the perpen-
dicular crop of which afforded no fOothold
for the surveyors, and men had to be low
cred down with ropes from the summit to
run the levels. Ip some places the face Of
the rock is forty feet above the track, solid
as the front of q steel vault, and enough
powder was burned in blasting to carry an
army through a tiercely-contested war.
Even yet gangs are plying the drill at some
points, and tons of rock are being blown
into the river to afford more room for the
rolling stock. These difficulties were great,
but once the road-bed was prepared, the
track Layers made things hum. Mr.. Speyer
and his men put down the entire 70 miles
of track in Al days and 8 hours actual
working time-an average of nearly two
miles per day! A mile a day, out on the
prairies, when the Union Pacific was young,
used to be considered good speed.
The Improvements being put up by the
Company are of the most substantial char.
acter.. The new passenger station at Sec
ond and Ann streets, Parkersburg, has been
alluded to. All along the line the station
buildings are large, neat in appearance, and
calculated to last for q generation. The
water stations are provided with 1000
barrel tanks, elevated 25 feet above the
track, and filled by pumping stations on
the river bank. At Ravenswood the Com
pany has six acres of land, upon which is
being erected a freight depot 100 by 40
feet, a fine turn-table, handsome passen-
ger station and large stock pens. At PIT.
Pleasant 49,, 600 has been expended in
land, 200 acres lying in n piece, on which
is located a passenger depot, round house
with accommodation for -four engines, cat
tie pens, ETC., with extensive side tracks.
I%nclines leading to the river are also
under way at Point Pleasant, Ripley
Landing and at two other points. The
bridges over the streams are uniformly
strong. At Big Mill creek there is an
iron truss bridge of $50 feet span, n of
100 feet span at Lee creek, one of 100 feet
span at Sand creek and q number of
smaller structures OF a similar kind, all
built by the Phoenix Bridge Company,
while the ~trestleS are massive in character.
The track is ballasted with broken stone
or gravel in the best manner. With this
brief summary of the past, present and
future of the road, we will return to the
narration of the events OF the trip.
THE TRIP.
At 8 o'clock the train ran opposite the
the head of historic Blannerhassctt,
and Il splendid view Of the Island and the
%neighboring shores Oh both sides of the
river was had. The train ran remarkably
steady, and the solidity of the road bed
surprised and delighted the officers of the
Company. The ascent of the long grade
to Washington Bottom, at the foot of
Blannerhassett, began at $40, and a few
minutes later our way lay across the rich,
rolling and high stretch of land once the
property of the Father of his Country.
This piece of country is the ideal farm
ing land. Rolling gently, it is topped
with an alluvial soil ofthe highest fertility,
and when but tickled with a hoe responds
in the most abundant harvests. The
railroad runs almost half a mile from the
river, and the track is nearly straight for
several miles.
At $50 the train came upon the tele'
graph gang, about eight miles out Of Park
ersburg, and a short stop was made. Again
getting under Roadway, the train ran
down the grade at the lower end of Wash
ington Bottom, and turning close to the
river passed Scott ~postoffice, niue miles
out. Close to the pcstOfice is Meldahl's
station, surrounded by a great grape
growing country. Most of the product of
the vines is shipped by the German grow
ers to Kelley Island, whence it is rams
formed into that justly celebrated bever-
age-Kelley Island wine. Along here the
back from the river, the intervening bot
toms making q fine farming land.
Opposite Newberry bar, that spot de-
tested by river men, we came to some very
heavy rock cutting, and there, too, met n
gravel train, and a gang of150 ballasters-
q mixed assemblage OF Italians, Americans,
Irish and negroes. Hero the train lay for
half IN hour, while u piece Of track was
put in shape. and az OILS we sped away
southwark, soon passing Section Boss Man
ming and a gang of men blasting out rock
to admit of the track being removed q few
feet farther in toward the hill. At O:a5
Harris Ferry, opposite Ho~ckingport, o.,
was passed, and at $50 the train entered
upon Belleville Bottom, ran over the fine
iron bridge at Lee creek, and halted at
Belleville Station at 1905. Belleville is
opposite Reedville, and is reputed the
muddiest town in the United States.
The road runs about n half mile
back from the town, which faces
right along the river bank, and how the in
habitants will get from their homes to the
cars, or rice rersd, on mornings when a heavy
dew falls, is past my comprehension. in
despair suggest stilts-long ones. The
train lay at Befleville half an hour to allow
a gravel train TO pass, and the inhabitants
swarmed out to the cars and took a lively
interest," in the engine, the tender, the
coach, and the inmates thereof. Many en-
quiries were made regarding the mails and
freight trains, and the people were much
disappointed at the information that Uncle
Sam had as yet done nothing in regard to
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